tag : syntax

Synchronizing Asynchronous JavaScript With ES7

ECMAScript version 5 is the latest complete version of JavaScript available and is implemented in every major browser, but ES6 is in the works and promises a much better world for JavaScript developers with features such as a simple class syntax, arrow functions, built-in promises and the like. It doesn’t stop there, though; we’re already looking ahead to ES7 while ES6 is still cooking in the oven. In particular, I’m extremely excited about asynchronous functions.

JavaScript Prototypal Inheritance and What ES6 Classes Have to Say About It

Many people come to JavaScript from other object-oriented programming languages such as Java or C++ and are confused as heck. “Where are the classes?” Well JavaScript doesn’t have classes. Rather, JavaScript uses prototypal inheritance to create something similar to classes. Though it is somewhat similar, it’s still quite different and takes a lot of work to understand. That’s the purpose of ES6 Classes.

JavaScript Fundamentals: Functions

In JavaScript, functions are an integral part of development. They are what contain all of our amazing functionality (hence the name function) and run it whenever we deem worthy. With functions we can make code nonlinear, more organized, and easier to understand. We can also do some crazy stuff with functional programming.

Programmatic JavaScript Templating With Buildr

We’ve all heard of Templating, heck I’ve written about templating. Templating is a great way to write HTML that is designed to be manipulated and inserted into a document via JavaScript, but it has a very annoying caveat: it’s a huge pain to make templates external. They pretty much have to be inline, which doesn’t allow you to maintain them separately. That’s all about to change.

JavaScript Style Guides

Everyone has their own style when coding. For some people, the style they use might be so inconsistent that it looks like they used a program to randomize the code layout so it would confuse everyone as much as possible. In general it’s best to use a consistent coding style, for your own sake, and for the sake of everyone else who might look at your code. To keep things consistent you can use a style guide, which will help you remember and use your rules.

The Great Semicolon Debate

Recently there has been a large debate about the use (or rather, the lack of use) of the semicolon in JavaScript code. A few words that shouldn’t have been said were said and suddenly people are at each other’s throats. The idea of omitting semicolons isn’t entirely new, but it has hit its stride recently, and it’s starting to crash into the opinions of the traditionals. Here, I’m giving my thoughts on this whole debacle.